During the past few years I have purchased nearly all the components of a complete workshop. Some of these purchases involved simply picking out the tool I wanted and getting it. Others were much more involved. This page will serve as a jumpoff point for the various tool reviews that I have done in the past. I hope you find them useful and informative. Some of the formats of the documents might be a bit screwy. Sorry for that but some of these reviews were written a long time ago in MS word and they did not transfer well.

Several years ago I purchased a Star 8" jointer. This jointer is nearly identical to the Powermatic 8", Jet 8" and the Grizzley 8" jointers. In fact, if it weren't for the color and table height adjusters, these jointers would probably be identical. I have been told that all of these jointers are made in the same Taiwanese factory, and only the names have been changed to protect the innocent (or guilty). Click here for the Star 8" jointer review.

I spent a lot of time researching the best dust collector and associated accessories for my workshop. I ended up spending a lot of money, but I got a system that makes my shop completely dust free. It runs well, is simple to operate, fairly quiet, and as I said, it gives me a totally clean shop. Click here for a detailed review of all that I went through. For photos of the shop and the dust collector you can get the directory of my photos here. My cyclone was purchased from Oneida-Air. I could have made the cyclone myself, but the cost from Oneida was very reasonable, and the thickness of the metal that they used, and the quality of the welds was far better than anything I could have ever made myself. 

I lusted after a drum sander for quite a while. I had made a dresser out of maple, and every time I tried to get nice smooth boards out of my planer, I got a small degree of tearout. Finally, during the making of some picture frames, I decided that I had to have a sander of some sort. Here is my review of the Delta 18-36" drum sander, and the reasons I chose it over the competition.